PARACHUTISTS FAIL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 228, 9 July 1941, Page 6

PARACHUTISTS FAIL.

WIPED OUT BY RUSSIANS. SPECIALLY-TRAINED ATTACKERS (United Press Association— Copyright, (Reft. 1.40 p.m.) LONDON, July S. A Hungarian communique' claima that motorised units on Saturday anrl Sunday repulsed strong Russian outflanking attacks. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that special Russian squads; trained to wipe out parachutists and other airborne troops, surrounded and killed or captured thousands of Hitler’s crack paratroops. The Germans threw in five divisions of these troops in the central sector and a largo percentage is known, to have been destroyed.

The Moscow newspaper “Izvcstin” describes a machine-gun action in which the Russians wiped out an entire regiment of Rumanian Royal Guards, except four men who surrendered. The Aloscow radio, describing the discovery of many dead Rumanians in a wood which the Russians recaptured, declares that the Germans are treating the Rumanian, also Hungarian and Slovak troops in a most brutal fashion, enforcing discipline by terrorism, under which executions are or dered for the slightest derelictions. According to Italian despatches tlio R-ussians are applying the "scorched earth” policy to Moldavia, where the advancing troops find transport, food, metal, and even, church bells, removed or destroyed, and roads and bridges mined.